


One Thousand Cranes, One Wish

by Lilypetal347



Category: Mario Story | Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Origami King, Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: (not extreme but tagging just in case), Angst, Body Horror, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Character Study, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Slight Canon Rewrite, Spoilers, Tags Contain Spoilers, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26354908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilypetal347/pseuds/Lilypetal347
Summary: *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF ORIGAMI KING!*The last paper crane glowed with power.Only one wish to fix all of the damage her brother had done...
Comments: 18
Kudos: 46





	One Thousand Cranes, One Wish

**Author's Note:**

> Last warning to anyone who hasn’t played/experienced Paper Mario: the Origami King yet! I’d highly recommend checking it out in its entirety before reading this. It’s a great game!
> 
> Although I did like the game’s ending where Olivia makes up her mind about what to wish for without saying a word (why Olivia, why? 😢), I kind of wished she had actually said something. It might have made it clearer why she didn’t word her wish more carefully to save herself. So, that’s what this is about!
> 
> Also, this will probably be the last fic I do for sometime since my online school is starting tomorrow. Just in case anyone wonders why I don’t post for awhile! Hope everyone is doing well with school or work right now!

Head bowed in concentration, Olivia listened to the origami craftsman’s instructions in order to fold the 1,000th paper crane and receive a wish. The origami girl’s hands shook slightly as she painstakingly crafted the royal purple paper, desperately trying _not_ to think about how this paper was once the body of her own brother. 

_Hold it together, Olivia. Olly asked you specifically to do this for him._

After one last crease, the completed paper crane shimmered with power, flapping out its wings and floating into the air. Olivia stared up at the refolded paper of Olly, the faintest hint of pride on her face at being able to honor her brother’s final request.

“Well done. With that, the technique is complete,” the origami craftsman announced, observing the glowing crane. The toad glanced over at the origami girl, nodding lightly. “You may make your wish, Olivia.”

Olivia nodded back at her designer. “Ok. My wish… my wish…”

She looked at the crane unsurely. There was so much she could wish for! 

The first, extremely _selfish_ thing she thought of was bringing her brother back to life, but she rejected that idea almost immediately; Olly wouldn’t have wanted her to use her only wish to save him. 

Then, she landed on the big one: undoing all of Olly’s mistakes. That was probably what her brother hoped she would do. But the question was, how would she word that? 

…Oh! If she wished for all of Olly’s origami to be unfolded, then all of the Mushroom Kingdom would be fixed! The castle, Princess Peach, the folded soldiers, everything! They would all go back to normal! It was perf-!

…Wait.

That… included her. By wishing for that, she would…

Olivia frowned, head drooping. She… she didn’t want this to be the end. There was still so much she hadn’t done yet! Get a job, find a hobby, go on vacation, meet more people! And all her friends… she didn’t want to leave them…

But… 

Olivia turned to look at Mario, her first friend and the one who got her through this journey. The red clad hero gazed back at her silently with a gentle smile on his face, as if letting her know that he trusted her to make the right choice. Tearing her gaze away from Mario, the origami girl flipped around to stare up at Peach; the princess had her eyes closed like she was sleeping, contrasting drastically with the rest of her disfigured body that was unfolded and molded into the wall above the thrones. 

Olivia flinched. She shouldn’t be so selfish; she had no right to be when countless people had suffered at the hands of her own brother. The very least she could do now was undo all of the damage done to the Mushroom kingdom.

And even though she hadn’t been alive for long, Olivia realized that she had experienced an awful lot. This adventure across the kingdom with Mario had taken them to so many different places, much more than some people probably have been to. She had laughed, and she had cried; she had succeeded, and she had failed; she had loved, and she had lost. She had met tons of great people and gained many friends. In reality, Olivia _had_ been able to do a lot in her short life.

Her friends would be okay without her. All of them were resilient people who had probably been through hard times before, so Olivia had no doubt that they would be fine. And Mario… he might be the most sad, but he was the strongest person she knew. Although she hated the thought of putting him through the loss of another friend so soon, Mario would be able to move on; she was sure of it.

Plus, there was someone else who probably needed her the most.

Olivia closed her eyes and turned to face the red clad hero again. “Mario… I just wanted to say, one last time, thank you so much. For all that you have done to help me stop Olly, and also all of the things you have shown me along our adventure, I’ll never be able to thank you enough.” 

She smiled at her companion, trying to hide the bittersweet edge it held. Mario tipped his cap in a friendly “happy to help” way, but he did give her a curious look at the sudden thanks.

Olivia exhaled a soft sigh before continuing. “You see, all I ever wanted was to live peacefully with my brother. But… when I realized what he was doing, I made it my goal to stop him, save the kingdom, and help him see and appreciate the beauty of all life.”

“And with this,” she looked back up at the still glowing crane. “I think I can finally fulfill all of those wishes.”

Not waiting to see Mario’s reaction, Olivia took a deep breath, knowing well that it would be one of her last. The origami princess stared at the crane with a determined expression. “Thousandth crane, grant me my wish…” She held her hands over her heart, closing her eyes in a peaceful acceptance.

“May all of the origami folded by my brother be undone!”

Through her closed eyelids, Olivia could see the paper crane shine brighter than ever. Just a second later, she felt her body begin to glow with the same blinding light and rise into the air.

The next few moments were a blur. Olivia’s entire world became encompassed with light, swaddling her like a giant warm blanket. She felt herself rising higher and higher, the presence of many other bright things also flying alongside her. Distantly, she thought she could hear an echoey voice calling out to her. Who…?

Suddenly, Olivia felt her body start to unfold. Her consciousness grew fuzzy, and she could feel parts of her body become numb. Instinctively, the young girl had a brief moment of panic at her approaching fate, but the ethereal light seemed to whisper soothing things in her ear, calming her down.

Using the last of her strength, Olivia forced her heavy eyelids to open in order to look down at what her wish had wrought. The sight was _breathtaking_ : Peach’s Castle unfolding and moving back to its original location, thousands of glowing cranes circling around, bits and pieces of origami unfolding as they flew, and ethereal yellow light coating everything.

Somehow, she sensed her friends somewhere below. She wondered what they were all experiencing right now. Maybe Mario had realized what her wish meant for her own fate by now. Maybe he already felt sad. However, she knew he would be fine; they all would.

Satisfied, Olivia let her eyes drift shut and her body relax. It was getting hard to think, and she really wanted to sleep. The light responded by lifting her further into its embrace, more of her folds unraveling as she rose even higher.

In her last lucid moments, one final thought flowed through Olivia’s fading mind.

_Olly… Bobby… I’ll see you soon…_

After the last crease was smoothed out, cheery yellow paper fluttered into the far sky, and Olivia was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments! Every kudos and comment is greatly appreciated!


End file.
